Data Robotics, has launched DroboShare, a companion for its Drobo external hard drive system that enables users to easily share files over a Local Area Network (LAN). Drobo was well-received on its US launch last year for providing an easy-to-use automated secure back-up system, and has recently been released in the UK.

Drobo includes up to four hard drives that appear as a single disk to the user. If one fails, no data is lost and it's still accessible. When a replacement drive is added, the unit takes care of rebuilding the array so data is protected again.

With DroboShare, users can now access the information stored on a Drobo from any client on the network, including Windows, Apple or Linux computers, as well as other networked devices like Home Media Centres. Data Robotics says that DroboShare is the first NAS solution that supports all major file systems (NTFS, HFS+, EXT3, FAT32). Additionally, Drobo has the flexibility to be disconnected from DroboShare and then connected directly to a host computer as required.

The network connection supports Gigabit Ethernet, while the Drobo support up to 8TB of storage, scaling to 32TB as larger disk drives become available.